I’ve wanted to start doing more science activities with Caden so I ordered this book called Science is Simple by Peggy Ashbrook (affiliate link) to help me guide Caden in simple science activities. So far I really like the science book I got. It was written specifically for teaching science lessons to preschoolers. Each unit has several lessons which build upon each other to give children more opportunities to learn. The lessons are very simply written and include a clear objective for what the children should learn and a “What to Talk About” section with questions to ask your child to guide their understanding. The units are broken up into sections starting with a “Science Table” activity for the children to explore as much as they want, a “To Get Ready” section with ideas on how to talk about the topic throughout the day, several lessons, ideas for books to read related to the topic, as well as “Follow-Up Activities”. 

Since it is winter time I decided to start with the “What is Melting?” unit. The objective for this unit is for Caden to learn that heating a solid will change it into a liquid and that is called melting. I started with the science table activity and Caden was involved from the start to the end of this activity.

First Caden helped me make “icebergs”. I used a large measuring cup and lined it with a gallon size freezer bag. I then filled it with water as Caden watched. To make this activity more interesting I had Caden add some glitter, blue food coloring and small Arctic animals before freezing our icebergs. We made one large iceberg with a gallon size freezer bag and two smaller icebergs using plastic sandwich bags. 

A couple of days later I pulled the now frozen icebergs out of the freezer and Caden explored them in the kitchen sink full of water. I initially wanted to use our water table for this activity, but decided to save myself the mess and do it in the kitchen sink. If it had been warmer out I would have used the water table outside. 

While Caden played and explored the “icebergs” I pointed out that the ice is a solid and that the water is a liquid. I asked him questions like “What is happening to the ice?” and “Is it melting?”. 

Caden had fun trying different ways to melt the ice. He poured cups of water on the “icebergs”, ran warm water over the “icebergs” and use the kitchen sprayer to spray the “icebergs” to help them melt and to free the little animals that were hidden inside. 

Caden enjoys playing with water and ice so he had a really good time with this activity! He even tried it again with Daddy the next day since we had an extra “iceberg”. He loved watching the ice melt down the drain. 

I’m not sure how much of this lesson Caden understood, but I plan to continuing talking about solids, liquids and melting over the next week. Maybe we will do this activity again and see if he notices that the water in the sink turns blue because of the melting ice! And of course we will do another melting activity from the book to build on this experience! 

And now it’s time for the Saturday Science Blog Hop!

Snow Science Experiment from Little Bins for Little Hands

Investigating Polar Regions Using a KWL Chart from Still Playing School

 

 

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